Sunday, December 11, 2016

The 12 Months of Christmas > for Dan Goodman

Dan encouraged me to take my songwriting and recording engineering to the next level. We discussed everything from preamps to ASCAP and we intimately conversed about the 4416’s routing schematic; which I have hard-copy.

The very first time I heard his voice [phone] I really liked him; he was straight forward and calming when he offered suggestions or instructed me. We had several unforgettable phone calls.

For some reason, I thought Dan lived in Southern California. I had never bothered to ask him or even check; after his passing, I was shocked to learn he lived less than 100 miles from me and sailed the same San Francisco Bay that I had 30 years ago > we never discussed sailing.

In 2008, I bought my 4416; so all of these Yahoo4416 guys were already 7 years friends with Dan and the forums before I came onboard. And these Facebook groups didn’t exist yet. Admittedly, I joined the Yahoo4416 group more than a year before buying my 44; I was still learning 01X and mLAN and I always had my heart set on getting a 4416 ever since I knew Yamaha made them. So Ronny Morris' Yahoo.4416 group was like technical therapy for me. Also a slew of talented, creative guys that continue there and now on Facebook.

In December 2015, as a gift, Dan offered to master one of my songs. I had recorded a Barry Manilow song at the last minute just before Christmas. Dan's critique of my recording was clear. He told me, “…that he added a bit of his TLC to the master bus, but he didn’t touch anything else; he didn’t even remix the stems, telling me, '…your song out of the box was already properly mastered.” During my last phone call with Dan, he reiterated to me, “Harry you mentioned producing other musicians; you should. Because you’re really good at this.” That is the highest compliment anyone has ever given me.

This Christmas, illuminate somebody in your life. They deserve your recognition and to be written about > Merry Christmas, Dan.